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Financial Times
CommentaryFariborz S. Fatemi December 28, 2016Former Professional Staff MemberHouse Foreign Affairs CommitteeSenate Foreign Relations Committee
What a travesty, the pip-squeak prime minister of Israel, Netanyahu, demeaning the president of the United States, Barack Obama. Never mind that no US president has done more to protect the security of Israel than President Obama. Rather than show his gratitude, the prime minister teams up with the president-elect to interfere with the foreign policy of the United States. They both seem to forget that the US Constitution provides for one president at a time and Barack Obama is that president. Prime Minister Netanyahu also conveniently forgets that several years ago, the leaked “Palestine Papers” showed clearly that the biggest obstacle to the two-state solution and peace is, and always has been, Israel, not the Palestinians as he would like everyone to believe. Furthermore, that he had to be dragged, kicking and screening, to proclaim his support for a two-state solution. The Papers also revealed, during those countless negotiations, the United States always acted as Israel’s lawyer and was never even-handed. In fact, the Palestine negotiators, even went as far as accepting the declaration that “Israel is a Jewish state,” still to no avail and no deal. President Obama, knowing this, tried to give Netanyahu the backing to be a statesman and to negotiate peace by urging the stoppage of settlement construction. The prime minister could have forged his legacy as a man who brought peace to this very troubled land, but instead, he has thrown in with the most extreme elements of the extremists in his country in order to stay in power. The president-elect might be excused, for he is new at these things, and generally ignorant. But what cannot be excused is his meddling and lack of knowledge about the Constitution, the world around him, delicate negotiations or diplomacy. Yet like a bull in a china shop, he forges ahead, embarrassing himself and the country he purports to lead. Very sad.
A version of this also appeared in the Boston Globe of December 28, 2016.